Brief summaries of tropical Atlantic activity tailored to the general public, coastal residents, and weather enthusiasts. I have been sending out these updates since 1996, and appreciate everyone's continued interest!

13 October 2010

Category 2 Hurricane Paula stalling in Yucatan Straights...

Aircraft recon into Paula on Tuesday afternoon found much stronger winds than expected, and it was immediately upgraded to an 85kt CAT2 hurricane with a central pressure of 981mb. Since then, it has has changed very little... at 15Z today the intensity is 85kts/984mb. Though the forecast is for gradual weakening in the face of increasing vertical shear, a short-term temporary increase is possible based on satellite imagery. There is another recon plane en route to the storm as I type this, so in a couple of hours we will know better what the exact intensity is. It's a rather small storm, so changes (either increases or decreases) can happen dramatically.

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Author: Brian McNoldy,Senior Research Associate at University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science

"In the eye of a hurricane, you learn things other than of a scientific nature. You feel the puniness of man and his works. If a true definition of humility is ever written, it might well be written in the eye of a hurricane." -Edward Murrow, reporting on Hurricane Edna 1954